TWO kings' sons once went out in
search of adventures, and fell into a wild, disorderly way of living,
so that they never came home again. The youngest, who was called Simpleton,
set out to seek his brothers, but when at length he found them they mocked
him for thinking that he with his simplicity could get through the world,
when they two could not make their way, and yet were so much cleverer.
They all three travelled away together, and came to an ant-hill. The two
elder wanted to destroy it, to see the little ants creeping about in their
terror, and carrying their eggs away, but Simpleton said, "Leave
the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to disturb them." Then
they went onwards and came to a lake, on which a great number of ducks
were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch a couple and roast them,
but Simpleton would not permit it, and said, " Leave the creatures
in peace, I will not suffer you to kill them." At length they came
to a bee's nest, in which there was so much honey that it ran out of the
trunk of the tree where it was. The two wanted to make a fire beneath
the tree, and suffocate the bees in order to take away the honey, but
Simpleton again stopped them and said, "Leave the creatures in peace,
I will not allow you to burn them." At length the three brothers
arrived at a castle where stone horses were standing in the stables, and
no human being was to be seen, and they went through all the halls until,
quite at the end, they came to a door in which were three locks. In the
middle of the door, however, there was a little pane, through which they
could see into the room. There they saw a little grey man, who was sitting
at a table. They called him, once, twice, but he did not hear; at last
they called him for the third time, when he got up, opened the locks,
and came out. He said nothing, however, but conducted them to a handsomely-spread
table, and when they had eaten and drunk, he took each of them to a bedroom.
Next morning the little grey man came to the eldest, beckoned to him,
and conducted him to a stone table, on which were inscribed three tasks,
by the performance of which the castle could be delivered. The first was
that in the forest, beneath the moss, lay the princess's pearls, a thousand
in number, which must be picked up, and if by sunset one single pearl
was wanting, he who had looked for them would be turned into stone. The
eldest went thither, and sought the whole day, but when it came to an
end, he had only found one hundred, and what was written on the table
came to pass, and he was changed into stone. Next day, the second brother
undertook the adventure; it did not, however, fare much better with him
than with the eldest; he did not find more than two hundred pearls, and
was changed to stone. At last the turn came to Simpleton also, who sought
in the moss. It was, however, so hard to find the pearls, and he got on
so slowly, that he seated himself on a stone, and wept. And while he was
thus sitting, the King of the ants whose life he had once saved, came
with five thousand ants, and before long the little creatures had got
all the pearls together, and laid them in a heap. The second task, however,
was to fetch out of the lake the key of the King's daughter's bed-chamber.
When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks which he had saved, swam up
to him, dived down, and brought the key out of the water. But the third
task was the most difficult; from amongst the three sleeping daughters
of the King was the youngest and dearest to be sought out. They, however,
resembled each other exactly, and were only to be distinguished by their
having eaten different sweetmeats before they fell asleep; the eldest
a bit of sugar; the second a little syrup; and the youngest a spoonful
of honey. Then the Queen of the bees, which Simpleton had protected from
the fire, came and tasted the lips of all three, and at last she remained
sitting on the mouth which had eaten honey, and thus the King's son recognized
the right princess. Then the enchantment was at an end; everything was
released from sleep, and those who had been turned to stone received once
more their natural forms. Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest
princess, and after her father's death became King, and his two brothers
received the two other sisters.

From Hesse, where we have also heard another
story differing in various ways. A poor soldier offers his services to
the King and promises to win for him the most beautiful maiden. He is
royally equipped, and on his way, when he passes by a great forest, he
hears the song of many thousands of birds resounding delightfully through
the blue air. "Halt, halt!" cries he. "The birds must not
be disturbed; they are praising their Creator!" and he orders his
coachman to turn round, and drives another way. After this he comes to
a field where many thousands of ravens are crying loudly for food. He
has a horse unharnessed, killed, and thrown for the ravens to eat. At
length he comes to a marsh where a fish is lying pitifully lamenting that
it cannot reach any flowing water. The soldier himself conveys it to the
water, and the fish wags its tail with joy. When he comes to the princess,
three tasks are given him, which he must accomplish. In the first place
he must gather together again a peck of poppy-seed which the King has
had scattered. The soldier takes a measure, a sack, and some white sheets
into the field, and spreads out the sheets there. Presently the birds
whose singing he would not disturb, come, pick up the seeds, grain by
grain, and carry them to the sheets, and the soldier sets before the King
the peck which he has had scattered. In the second place he has to fetch
a ring which the King's daughter has dropped into the sea. The fish which
he had placed in flowing water brings him the ring from under the fin
of a whale, where it had fallen. Thirdly, he is to kill a unicorn which
has taken up its abode in a forest, and is doing great damage. The soldier
goes into the forest, and there the ravens which he rescued from starvation
are sitting, and say to him, "Have patience for a little longer,
the unicorn has only one good eye, and now he is lying on it, and sleeping;
but if he turns round, and sleeps on the bad eye, we will peck out the
good one. He will then become furious, but, as he will be blind, he will
run against the trees in his fury, and stick fast with his horn."
Soon afterwards the animal turns in his sleep, and then he lies on the
other side, on which the ravens fly to him, and peck out his good eye.
He leaps up and runs against an oak-tree and sticks his horn firmly into
it. Then the soldier cuts off his head, carries it to the King, and receives
in return for it his beautiful daughter, whom he takes to his master,
by whom he is royally rewarded.

In Netherlandish, see The Grateful Animals, No
4. in Wolf's Wodana. In Hungarian, see Gaal, No 8. In Persian,
Touti Nameh, No 21 in Iken. A certain King dies and leaves behind
him two sons. The elder nsnrps the crown; the second leaves the country.
He comes to a pond where a snake has caught a frog. He calls the snake,
which leaves hold of the frog, and it hops back into the water. In order
to compensate the snake, he cuts off a bit of his own flesh. To show their
gratitude for these benefits, both the frog and the snake come to him
in human form and serve him. The prince enters into the service of a King,
whose ring falls into the water when he is fishing, and who orders the
prince to get it out again for him. The frog-man reassumes the form of
a frog, goes into the water, and brings out the ring. Soon afterwards
the King's daughter is bitten by a snake, and no one can save her from
death but the snake-man, who sucks out the poison from the wound. Thereupon
the King gives the prince his daughter to wife. And now the two faithful
servants take leave of him, and make themselves known to him respectively
as the frog whose life he had saved, and the snake to whom he had given
a piece of his own flesh to eat. See the story of Livoret (3, 2)
in Straparola. In the Jewish Maasähbuch (chap. 143 of Rabbi
Chanina), the King first gets to know about the Princess with the Golden
Hair, by a single hair which a bird one day (as in Tristan), lets
fall on his shoulders, and which it has plucked from her head while she
was bathing. On his way Chanina shows kindness to a raven, a dog, and
a fish. The tasks set him are to procure water from Paradise and from
hell, and the grateful raven brings a small pitcherful from both places.
Then he has to get a ring out of the sea. The fish prevails upon Leviathan,
who has swallowed it, to spit it out on land, but in the meantime a wild
boar comes and swallows it. And now the dog attacks the wild boar and
tears it in two pieces, and Chanina again finds the ring. The end is entirely
different; for instance, when Chanina has brought the bride home to the
King he is taken into high favour by him, and for that reason is murdered
by the envious. But the young Queen, who is very much devoted to him,
sprinkles him with the water from Paradise, by which be is immediately
restored to life. The King wishes to make a trial of this likewise, and
orders one of his men to kill him, but the Queen pours the water of hell
over him, by which he is immediately burnt to ashes. She says to the people,
"See, he was an impious man, or he would have been brought back to
life again;" and marries Chanina. There are some more details in
Helwig. There is a certain amount of resemblance to Ferdinand the Faithful,
No. 126. The story of the White
Snake, No. 17, is like this, and so
is Soldier Lawrence in Pröhle's Kindermärchen,
No 7.